I was there Friday night, was just wondering what other people thought. I had a great time, but I always find it hard with the food that will be there to know how much to eat before hand. Seemed food was disappearing left and right, and I'll guiltily admit to just grabbing food from places where I wasn't getting beer just because I needed to eat something. Allagash Coolship Red was really good, both Bell's beers - Boon Companion and Bear Hug. Oh and Societe from CA was out early. Any other thoughts?
Our group opened one that night and consensus was: Very thin and underwhelming. I think they struggled to get through the bottle. Coolship was awesome & I am sad I missed the Lacto Guava Grove. However Hardywood/CCB brought some stellar beers for their salon. I don't remember much after, hahaha
-Hardywood Bourbon Cru on Apricots -CCB 110k+OT #6 -Hardywood Imperial Stout aged in Reservoir barrels (soon to be part of a CCB colab?) -Hardywood BGBS -CCB DB Huna
Standouts Coronado Old Scallyway. Pizzahouse Pint Jaguar Share 10% stout on nitro aged in 4 Roses barrels. Both excellent. Societe did run out early, but I've had their stuff. List goes on and and on. Great time. Food was out early. The quail legs were good though. I missed out on the scallop crudo and that was done by 8. I wouldn't take anyone's word on how the Hydra was if they opened it up after the event. After sampling close to 40 beers, I couldn't tell the difference between anything. (I asked for small pours, got sips from my brothers glass if I didn't have it.) The salon with Jim Koch was great, poured the 1994 Sam Adams Triple Bock. It was great.
I opened the Hydra Cuvee after the event but don't remember any of it. I managed to break the glass too. I'm going to eat beforehand next time. The food there is good, but microscopic portions. I like to eat and I'm pretty good at it.
We went to the collaboration salon and got to taste the Hydra and it can be categorized pretty much as a barrel aged black ipa. I wouldn't say it's earth shattering but it was pretty tasty. 33% Gonzo 33% Wookey Jack 12-14% FW Bravo (which was amazing) 12-14% DDBA We got to taste all 4 of those beers then the final product. My taste buds felt pretty done even then as the first two beers they had us try were the Bravo and DDBA. Felt a few places ran out of beer pretty damn quickly (looking at Societe and Crux). The SN BA Porter was a standout for me. My father and I agreed the quality of beers was better overall than previous years. Met one BA who recognized me in the salon with my arm immobilizer on.
i was there Friday and was not undererwhelmed but not really impressed either. seems like every i went for a beer I wanted to try they were out of the paired food and had the food but out of the beer. maybe just some bad timing on my part. IPA salon was decent, always good to listen to brewers of that caliber speak but my taste buds were shot by about 10 PM. got to say I had a better time at Whole Foods drinking mutli versions of Bourbon County and then the best time of my weekend was Meridian Pint for most of Saturday afternoon, we hit Birch & Barley and a decent but overpriced meal and then went upstairs and seemed to miss some of the better Surly beers somehow. My group as pretty fried by about 10 PM so we just went back to the Westin and got a little silly drinking some of the beer we had bought thru the weekend. I too woke up with a broken Savor glass somehow but did manage to get the Hydree Cuvee home in my luggage for tasting at a later date.
Coolship red, boon companion and the brooklyn ghost were highlights that i can readily recall. seemed to be an adequate amount of food on saturday night. really enjoyed talking with the allagash, kuhnhenn and pizzhouse folks. things really got hazy after my friend and i got in a cab with a big group to go to churchkey and somehow ended up at russia house. got home safe but sadly misplaced the hydrra cuvee and glass somewhere along the way. good times. edit: i now remember doing a stone old guardian vertical near the end of the event. that was nice.
Great time as usual. 3rd time attending. Food was sparse at times through out the night BUT they were actually still bring out food as late at 10:30. Other years food seemed to be done by 10. Beer, great as usual. Stand outs were coolship obviously, Fate Brewing tequila barrel aged Gose was AMAZING, NB Le Terrior, Sun King hop up off that brett, bells bear hugs, FW opal and merkin. Made it all the way to 11. Good crown this year, no one acting stupid.
